PARAMETERIZED SERVICES DESCRIPTOR FOR ADVANCED TELEVISION SERVICES

• US 20140020042A1
• Filed: 07/03/2013
• Published: 01/16/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 07/12/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Saturn Licensing LLC (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: EYER, Mark
• Granted Patent: US 8,898,720 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/131
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/178 Metadata, e.g. disparity information
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/194 Transmission of image signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4345 Extraction or processing of SI, e.g. extracting service information from an MPEG stream
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4516 involving client characteristics, e.g. Set-Top-Box type, software version or amount of memory available
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/482 End-user interface for program selection broadcast systems using EPGs H04H60/72
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4823 using a channel name
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/816 involving special video data, e.g 3D video
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/83 Generation or processing of protective or descriptive data associated with content; Content structuring

Abstract

A method, computer program, reception apparatus, and information providing apparatus for accessing or providing access to content. The method includes receiving a transport stream from a content provider. A virtual channel table (VCT) is extracted from the transport stream. Further, a determination is made as to whether one or more services, corresponding to an entry included in the VCT, are supported by the reception apparatus based on one or more parameterized service descriptor (PSD) instances, which are associated with a predetermined Service Type and included in the VCT.

Claims

1. A method of a reception apparatus for accessing content, comprising:

receiving a transport stream from a content provider;

extracting a virtual channel table (VCT) from the transport stream; and

determining whether one or more services, corresponding to an entry included in the VCT, are supported by the reception apparatus based on a parameterized service descriptor (PSD), the PSD being associated with a predetermined Service Type and included in the VCT.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein

the PSD includes a descriptor tag, a descriptor length, an application tag, and application data.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein

the PSD is associated with Service Type 0x09.

4. The method according to claim 2, wherein the step of determining comprises:

parsing a component list descriptor including one or more stream types, the component list descriptor being included in the VCT; and

determining whether the one or more stream types are supported by the reception apparatus.

5. The method according to claim 2, wherein the step of determining comprises:

determining whether the application tag included in the PSD is recognized;

determining whether the length of the PSD is within a predetermined range;

determining whether each mode defined in the application data is supported by the reception apparatus; and

determining whether the one of more services, corresponding to the entry included in the VCT, are supported by the reception apparatus when the application tag is recognized, the length of the PSD is within the predetermined range, and each mode defined in the application data is supported.

6. A computer-readable storage medium having embedded therein instructions, which when executed by a computer, causes the computer to perform a method for accessing content, the method comprising:

receiving a transport stream from a content provider;

extracting a virtual channel table (VCT) from the transport stream; and

determining whether one or more services, corresponding to an entry included in the VCT, are supported by the reception apparatus based on a parameterized service descriptor (PSD), the PSD being associated with a predetermined Service Type and included in the VCT.

7. A reception apparatus, comprising:

a receiving unit configured to receive a transport stream from a content provider;

an extracting unit configured to extract a virtual channel table (VCT) from the transport stream; and

a processor configured to determine whether one or more services, corresponding to an entry included in the VCT, are supported by the reception apparatus based on a parameterized service descriptor (PSD), the PSD being associated with a predetermined Service Type and included in the VCT.

8. The reception apparatus according to claim 7, wherein

the PSD includes a descriptor tag, a descriptor length, an application tag, and application data.

9. The reception apparatus according to claim 7, wherein

the PSD is associated with Service Type 0x09.

10. The reception apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the processor is further configured to

parse at least one component list descriptor including one or more stream types, the component list descriptor being included in the VCT;

and

determine whether the one or more stream types are supported by the reception apparatus.

11. The reception apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the processor is further configured to

determine whether the application tag included in the PSD is recognized;

determine whether the length of the PSD is within a predetermined range;

determine whether each mode defined in the application data is supported by the reception apparatus; and

determine whether the one of more services, corresponding to the entry included in the VCT, are supported by the reception apparatus when the application tag is recognized, the length of the PSD is within the predetermined range, and each mode defined in the application data is supported.

12. An information providing apparatus, comprising:

a content supplying unit configured to store or receive content;

an encoder configured to encode the content;

a multiplexer configured to generate a transport stream including the encoded content and a virtual channel table (VCT), the VCT including a parameterized service descriptor (PSD) associated with a predetermined Service Type.